PUNCHY! MUTABLE! TRUTHS?

Join us for youTurn's annual event of dance, live music and visual art. This year's artists include the works of renowned dancer and choreographer, Jesse Zaritt, and visual artist/singer song-writer, Michelle Josey. youTurn has commissioned Jesse Zaritt (NYC) to set original choreography on a select group of dancers in San Diego, as well as perform his own solo work. Michelle Josey (Austin, TX/San Diego, CA) will perform original songs and exhibit her visual artwork.

MEET THE ARTISTS

What movement practices help bodies renegotiate the terms of their belonging within a given culture? In what ways might dance engage our bodies to discover multiple critical and ethical modes of participation in social and political life? How can our invested, expressive, triumphantly and uniquely virtuosic movement generate change and ethical participation in the world?

MICHELLE JOSEY

What is the nature of change within relationships? Through acrylic painting, photography, creative writing, and music making, Michelle is compelled to understand nature's self referential behavoir. Her art=based research explores how patterns, order, and structure emerge from states of chaos and complexity.

MEET THE PERFORMERS

Desiree Cuizon Fejeran

Desiree Cuizon Fejeran grew up dancing in the Bay Area initially as a jazz and hip-hop dancer. She achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Dance, from San Diego State University in 2008. She had the privilege to perform and travel internationally in Mexico, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Indonesia. Since graduating she became a dance company member with Joe Alter Dance Group (2009-2010), The PGK Dance Project (2012-2016) and San Diego Dance Theater (2015 - present). Desiree continues to also work with various independent and local artists including: Somebodies Dance Theater, Anne Gehmen, Circle Circle Dot Dot, Blythe Barton Dance, Zaquia Salinas, Lara Binder, Erica Beuchner, Khamla Somphanh, IsadoraNow, The Movement Initiative and more. She is grateful for the abundance of opportunities to thrive as a professional dancer in the San Diego Community. When she is not dancing she is a Pilates Instructor and Certified Massage Therapist.

Gina Bolles Sorensen

One part dance educator, one part choreographer, and one part yogini, Gina Bolles Sorensen has the pleasure of talking about movement and the body all day long. As the Co-Artistic Director of somebodies dance theater, her choreography has been presented to critical acclaim at festivals in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Minneapolis, Mexico, and Israel among others. Awards include Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Dance Production at the SD International Fringe Festival and the SD Young Choreographers Prize. She has published original research on imagery in dance learning in the Journal of Dance Education, has been the recipient of two grants to study classical Indian dance in India, and was awarded a National Artist Teacher Fellowship from the Boston Arts Academy Center for Arts in Education. She currently teaches dance and related subjects at Grossmont College and the Coronado School of the Arts, as well as yoga through her online website www.YogaNatyamOnline.com. Gina’s and partner, Kyle Sorensen’s, model for contemporary dance training, SubtleBodyBigDance, can be experienced on Thursday evenings in San Diego’s White Box. www.somebodiesdancetheater.com

Anne Gehman

(Co-founder of youTurn Arts) is a choreographer and performer whose work explores the emergence of the unconscious and alchemy of the emotional body. She is interested in the wisdom of dance and how dance can reveal to us the things we didn't know that we didn't know. An active contributor to San Diego’s dance community, she is dance faculty for San Diego Dance Theatre and performs with Yolande Snaith’s IMAGOmoves, Blythe Barton Dance Co. and Somebodies Dance Theatre. Anne is working towards touringPRECIPITATE, a collaboration with cohort Erin Tracy, which is comprised of two interwoven solo works: Pleasant Beast & Knot Knowing. Anne’s most recent research, Giving Way, was presented at the Mingei Museum in Balboa Park as part of San Diego’s Annual Trolley Dances 2015. Anne continued the research of Giving Way as a practice and performance on 54 dancers culminating in an evening length thesis production in the Potiker Theatre of the La Jolla Playhouse, December 2016. She is currently looking forward to instructing as Lecturer for Contemporary Technique at San Diego State University this fall semester.

Chelsea Zeffiro is a contemporary dance artist, specializing in multi-disciplinary movement + media collaborations and dance film. She is co-founder & curator of San Diego’s first annual dance film festival 40 North Fest, now in it’s 3rd season, and serves as a Diplomat for the Global Dance Initiative as well as the 2014 Make It Happen awardee for her international dance documentary project, Take Your Place. Her work in video performance has been featured at Human Resources LA, Monkey Town, Greensboro Dance Film Festival, Front & Main Dance Festival as well as on Standard Vision LA’s 50x20ft. media facade at LA Live. In June of 2017, Zeffiro exhibited California Living Project II: Palo Alto a multi-channel video & dance installation/intervention wherein Zeffiro created dance performances for camera with the community of Greenmeadow, Palo Alto, alongside collaborator–visual artist–Nate Page and dancers, Angel Acuña & Kaitlyn Petrik.

Notable performance credits include: Dance Camera West, Los Angeles’ Night on Broadway, Live Arts Fest, 2016 Vienna International Ballet Experience Gala, San Diego International Fringe Festival, EMc X BD Emerging Voices in Choreography Festival, San Diego Dance Theater’s Trolley Dances,. She has been a guest performer with The Sunland Dancers (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, and has performed asa recurring soloist/choreographer with performance artist, Rachel Mason. Zeffiro is currently in her 3rd season with the San Diego-based, Blythe Barton Dance.

Erica Buechner

(Co-founder of youTurn Arts) A local to San Diego, Erica Buechner currently teaches at Francis Parker School, is on faculty at Malashock Dance, and is a committee member for San Diego Dance Connect. She began performing professionally in 1999, most extensively with Mojalet Dance Collective. Buechner has also performed with Eveoke Dance Theatre, Patricia Sandback and Dancers, IMAGOmoves, Wallpaper Performance Company, The PGK Dance Project, and the Joe Alter Dance Group, among other individual choreographers. Erica is choreographer, performer, and teacher that believes in asking questions and taking risks. She is interested in uncovering the humor, sensuality, and unrefined beauty in life. Erica approaches her work with a sense of collaboration, exploration, and accessibility. She is interested in finding the spaces in which thought processes and perspectives overlap; where the political and the personal resonate with each other.

Ian Isles stands 5'8'' with brown eyes, black hair, and sun kissed skin. After earning a degree in Dance from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures, his time is mostly spent teaching Pilates and Barre at various studios around San Diego. He finished his education in Pilates from the Body Arts Science International headquarters under the direct instruction of Rael Isacowitz, and finished his education in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals under the direct instruction of Peggy Hackney. Recently, he has been seen performing works for bkSOUL, Erica Buechner, Mark Haim, and Alexx Makes Dances. In the past, Ian has been a soloist for Vic Marks and David Rousseve, and performer for Maria Gillespie's Oni Dance, Nguyen2, and IN/EX Dance Project. LA Weekly once described Ian as being "among L.A.'s most inventive and thoughtful choreographers," and after a choreographic hiatus, he is now rekindling his curiosity for choreography.